• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Reserve engineers make Dogwood a better place for soldiers, Iraqis

Army News Service

Release Date: 8/12/2003

By Sgt. Mark Bell

FORWARD LOGISTICS BASE DOGWOOD, Iraq (Army News Service, Aug. 12, 2003) -- With high winds sending sand flying through the air, a small group of Army Reserve engineers worked cautiously in the Iraqi desert to build a much-needed helicopter landing pad.

With sand-covered faces and wearing sunglasses to protect their eyes, six engineers from Company B, 389th Engineer Battalion, based in Decorah, Iowa, worked to transform a useless desert plot to a fully operational helicopter landing pad for a nearby combat support field hospital.

Deployed since May 12 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, these citizen soldiers have been working nonstop designing and building morale and welfare projects, guard towers and various construction projects throughout Forward Logistics Base Dogwood -- a support operations center located southwest of Baghdad.

With more than 4,000 soldiers living on the base, the soldiers have been constantly busy since arriving in the Iraq theater of operation.

"We are constantly working on construction projects, improving living and working conditions, such as replacing broken windows, busted doors and pouring concrete slabs," said Spc. David Ferkingstad, 33, from Whitewater, Wis. "We are up to two basketball courts, and this is our second helicopter pad."

Although trained as carpenters and electricians, doing service projects and helping the indigenous people here is satisfying enough for the soldiers to wake up each morning in their wind-torn tents and sun-heated improvised showers, soliders said.

"We are giving soldiers and people here a better way of life," Ferkingstad smiled. "I also know we are doing the right thing by helping the Iraqi people. It's a good feeling knowing I am going home to Wisconsin making a difference. It's a just a small piece of a bigger pie to help the Iraqi people get their lives back to normal."

Agreeing with Ferkingstad, Spc. Natasha Holtgrewe, 20, from Swansea, Ill., said although it is important we are helping to build a new Iraq, she admits it is also very frustrating working in Iraq's hot climate.

As her team prepares the formations for pouring cement, she is cautious and professionally frustrated knowing the outcome of the hard, long days ahead of finalizing the large helipad.

A self-promoting perfectionist, Holtgrewe said the 110-plus temperatures have not been favorable to freshly poured concrete.

"These extreme temperatures determine how the concrete settles," she said. "It creates cracks in our projects, and there is nothing we can do about it. It's frustrating because people are going to see our work. They are going to know we did it and we want things to be perfect -- without flaws. It's what being in an engineer unit is all about."

Although their current project will go without much notice and fanfare, Sgt. Jared Sheridan, 25, an electrician from Decorah, Iowa, said finishing the basketball courts was extremely rewarding to see soldiers enjoying their hard work.

"It's a great feeling when people appreciate what you have completed," he said. "I know someone is going to enjoy those basketball courts. The best part about our job is improving the quality of life for soldiers and local Iraqi residents here."

Sheridan said improving the standard of living for the Iraqi people to where it was before the Saddam regime is very rewarding.

"I have talked to many local Iraqi people here, and while listening to them talk, it seems this country wasn't a bad place to live," he said. "It was only when Saddam came into power and decided to make his friends very rich and his fellow countrymen extremely poor."

(Editor's Note: Sgt. Mark Bell is a journalist with the 372nd MPAD.)